Biomass Activated Carbon: The Electrode Material to Promote the Large-Scale Production of Supercapacitors

Supercapacitors have emerged as one of the devices most likely to facilitate major breakthroughs in energy storage technology. With the advantages of wide source of raw materials, good electrical conductivity and easy preparation, biomass activated carbon has become the most promising materials to promote for application of supercapacitors. Biomass activated carbon still has problems such as low energy density and unenvironmentally preparation process. This work summarizes the relevant research about the manufacture of biomass activated carbon for supercapacitors in recent years, including the consistency between theoretical performance and experimental data, and the correlation between preparation technology and basic characteristics. Furthermore, the specific range of basic characteristics for high-performance biomass activated carbon was pointed out, which were pore size distribution, conductivity, specific surface area and surface heteroatom doping. The most suitable manufacturing process for high performance biomass activated carbon was demonstrated. This significance was important for promoting the large-scale production of biomass activated carbon for Supercapacitors.